Page 27 of 10 Things I Hate About Zombies

Celeste beamed, the silver stars below her eyebrows glimmering. ‘We’re in our reverb era right now. You two should come check us out at McMenamins Schoolhouse. We’re doing this benefit concert thing for Punk Broc. The Mountain Stoats are opening.’ Celeste’s tattooed hands fiddled with a moon pendant around her neck. ‘Maybe you could let Ainsley know?’

‘Sure.’ Zoey tried to hide her surprise. Ainsley and Celeste’s breakup had been one for the ages. There’d been shouting, followed by the throwing of clothes and guitars out onto the lawn of the sharehouse. Then make-up sex, followed by more shouting. Then a visit from the cops about a noise disturbance called in by the sole house on the street who was in the habit of calling the cops.

First the backyard chickens! Now matters of the heart! A girl should be able to be free in her own home, Ainsley had bellowed.

The cops had eventually left, although she’d received a citation for the chickens. (She’d exceeded the four-chicken limit by one. And the backyard tortoise wasn’t helping matters.)

‘Who’s your tattoo artist?’ asked Nick, with a nod at her hands.

Celeste held them up proudly. ‘Joaquin. They’re one of Zoey’s roommates.’

‘We’ve met.’ Nick showed off the temporary tattoo Joaquin had applied to his wrist.

‘Have you now.’ Celeste’s thin eyebrows rose like the Hawthorne Bridge when a ship required passage. ‘Our Zoey here is mellowing in her old age.’

Zoey coughed. Never. She would never mellow. She’d painstakingly acquired her emotional armour, and she was going to wear it as long as her spine would allow. No matter how hot Nick was.

Alice licked Zoey’s hand, and Zoey could feel her armour softening. Armour didn’t apply to dogs, after all.

Celeste examined her hair in a mirror shaped like a gaping mouth hanging by its teeth. It could have been Zoey’s for the low price of $700 and some night terrors.

‘Anyway, Joaquin has this new vegan ink, and they invited me to come in to have a piece done in exchange for a social post or two,’ said Celeste, turning away from the mirror of horrors. ‘They’re going to be at the InkWell festival.’

‘So’s Zoey.’ Was that a touch of pride in Nick’s voice? ‘The smoothie shop has a booth.’

Zoey sighed. She did indeed have a booth. When Ainsley had suggested it the other day, she hadn’t actually been suggesting. She’d pencilled in Zoey’s details in place of another vendor who’d cancelled last-minute. At least Zoey didn’t have to pay for the spot. (Even so, she’d tried to pass the spot off to Nick, but he preferred to stick to farmers’ markets.)

‘Ainsley’s going to be doing the signage,’ added Zoey. ‘She’s stoked about it. It’s her biggest gig to date.’

Celeste beamed. ‘Good for Ains. She deserves it.’

She sounded genuinely happy for Ainsley, and Zoey wondered whether perhaps their breakup hadn’t been their last – but rather their latest.

‘Where are you living these days?’ asked Zoey, curious.

‘The next block over.’ Celeste pointed at a newer-looking red-brick building with floor-to-ceiling windows. ‘You’re always welcome to stop by. I miss you guys.’

‘Holy shit, it’s Celeste from Wall of Knobs!’ A group of students accosted Celeste, and a conversation about synthesisers and special-effects pedals quickly ensued. Nick and Zoey waved and continued their art crawl, pressing their way through an installation that resembled the interior of a car wash. Oh bloody hell, the giant rotating brushes were humans in fringed, squishy costumes. Zoey tossed them a tip.

‘Celeste’s nicer than her stage persona suggests,’ said Nick. Celeste typically performed in frightening fabrics covered in spikes and zippers, with makeup straight out of Hellraiser’s special effects team.

If Julia and Frank from Hellraiser could find love, so could Zoey. Right?

‘I’m not sure Ainsley would agree.’ Zoey sighed. Her phone buzzed: someone had left a one-star review because the shop had run out of the mushroom smoothies. Well, that, and apparently a customer had been behaving oddly outside. It’s Portland! she wanted to scream. People are always behaving oddly outside!

‘All right there?’ Nick reached over to rub the frown lines that appeared between her eyes when she was stressed.

The movement surprised her, and yet … she didn’t jump away, the way she might ordinarily. Because she could see it. She could see how he could be someone in her life. And Alice, of course.

‘Sorry,’ she said, feeling her forehead relax under his touch. ‘Just lost in the minutiae of smoothie entrepreneurship.’

‘Ah yes, day after day of searching for that elusive Kermit the Frog texture and colour.’

‘I’d never do that to Kermit,’ protested Zoey. ‘You know I’m a friend to all frog kind. Now turtles, they’re fair game.’

‘She’s a monster of the worst kind,’ said Nick sadly. ‘And yet …’

‘And yet?’